A stroke victim has rung up a hefty bill after being left unable to say 'no' to salesmen offering him mobile phone contracts.

David Stopher had ten different contracts for phones including six with the
same company running at the same time - costing an estimated £2,700.

The 59-year-old was left with an inability to say no to company sales reps following a stroke.

Just say 'no': David Stopher's savings have been eaten into since a stroke left him unable to turn down sales reps offering him mobile phone contracts

Relatives say he has handed out money to persistent callers and given donations to charities, following his stroke, where he lay undiscovered for two days before he was found and taken to hospital.

His savings have been eaten into since the change in behaviour caused by brain damage.

Single David, of North Tyneside, said : 'Following the stroke, I was flooded with sales calls from agents for mobile phones.

'It got to the point when they would not take no for an answer.

'I think they were passing my information from agent to agent because they already had my banking information.

'It got to the stage where I was dreading the phone ringing.' Now, backed by his brothers John and Tony, he is recouping some of the money.

John said: 'Some of David's behavioural patterns have changed since the stroke.

'He can be easily persuaded to take on commitments he does not need.

'He cannot say no to persistent callers for goods, services, and charitable donations.

'We discovered David had at one time or another, ten mobile phone contracts.

'Six of them, running concurrently, were with the same company.

'He was paying the monthly contract on all of these phones, but used only one.

'We feel there was an element of misselling which has cost David approximately £2,700.

Mobile phone operator 3 - whose third party agents sold six of the deals - eventually agreed to cancel the contracts and stop salesmen from calling.

Now the family have won back some of the money David paid.

John said: 'I hope 3 can acknowledge they took advantage of someone who was vulnerable and unable to resist sales tactics.'

David used to run a Government training scheme before the stroke three years ago.

He was alone when he had the stroke resulting in left-sided weakness and sensory inattention.

It it thought he was lying for two days until John phoned up and realised something was wrong.

He is under the care of a consultant neuropsychologist.

The consultant said: 'Although Mr Stopher has made reasonable recovery physically, the brain injury has also resulted in significant personality change which is another well-known consequence of brain injury.

'This has resulted in Mr Stopher being vulnerable to financial abuse resulting in the loss of substantial assets.' He said there was unlikely to be any further recovery and David's situation should be regarded as permanent.

A spokesman for 3 promised an investigation into the six contracts David had taken out with them.

He said: 'We are looking into why the contracts were sold to Mr Stopher as we consider this is a serious matter and want to get to the bottom of why he managed to sign up to six contracts.'

He said the sales calls and chase-up activity on bills had already been stopped.

And he said that most of the money that David had paid would now be refunded.

He said: 'We have established that some of the phones were never used except to turn on, look at, and put it back in the box.'